Ontario’s plan for reopening tells us nothing

Ford calls it ‘a road map, not a calendar’

The Ontario government’s new framework for reopening the province is a shockingly weak document on every conceivable level. It tells Ontarians nothing about the order in which things will reopen, when the return to limited normality will begin, or exactly what public health conditions will start the process.

The document released by Premier Doug Ford Monday is a piece of work starkly inferior to what Saskatchewan produced last week. That province was able to tell its citizens what to expect in great detail and included a few specific openings coming in May. Plus, it lays out workplace rules meant to reassure workers and consumers.

The document is so detailed that it offers 22 points in relationship to golf courses alone.

In Ontario, all we know is that things will eventually reopen according to a timetable established by public health officials who are apparently in complete control of the provincial government.

Instead of getting down to work and producing a result, as Saskatchewan has done, Ontario cabinet ministers will be consulting everyone under the sun in the famous “coming days.”

The politicians might as well take the next month off and go play golf in Saskatchewan.

Pressed for specifics at a news conference Monday, Ford offered a variety of non- answers. It was a disappointing variance from the frankness he has exhibited throughout the pandemic crisis.

He couldn’t even offer a single example of a type of business that might be included in the first wave of reopening.

Perhaps the Ontario government felt unbearable pressure to release a framework, given that three other provinces have already delivered plans. New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island are the other two.

It’s fair to say that those three provinces are in a much better position to resume economic activity than Ontario is. Saskatchewan has had only four deaths from COVID-19 and has 61 active cases. New Brunswick has no deaths and seven active cases, just a bit worse than P. E. I. with no deaths and two active cases.

If anything, those governments are being extremely cautious in easing back into economic activity, but at least they’re doing something.

Ontario’s plan leaves the public none the wiser, and worse, it creates the fully justified impression that the provincial government hasn’t a clue what to do next and is in no hurry to find out.

What to do and when to do it are two separate questions.

It’s still early for Ontario to ease back on restrictions, but it would be reassuring to the public to know that there is a solid, rational plan to do so, and that the government has defined the triggers for restarting economic activity.

Instead, it cites four vague public health conditions. The chief medical officer of health will look for a consistent two- to- four- week reduction in cases, sufficient health system capacity to handle a resurgence, exceptionally high levels of contact tracing, and a shift to “new and other ways of testing” to allow widespread tracking of cases.

We know that hospital capacity has been dramatically increased but remains underused. No information was provided about the rest of it, but we are told that all four conditions have to be met.

It might be an impossibly high bar.

Absent in the province’s document is any serious weighing of the widespread economic and mental health effects of the province’s drastic shut down.

A new Angus Reid poll released Monday indicates 50 per cent of Canadians report that the pandemic has had an impact on their mental health and 42 per cent on their physical health. Sixteen per cent say they are struggling financially.

Ford made repeated references Monday to hearing from people who are really hurting economically. There’s no shortage of them, and they are crying out for some indication of whether their businesses and jobs have a future. They need a bit of hope and Ford didn’t offer an ounce of it.

Instead, the premier kept repeating “the steps we are taking are working.” Yes, but only in one dimension. As long as everyone stays locked up in their homes, we can say with some assurance that COVID-19 case numbers will remain relatively modest, but that’s only part of the challenge.

Reopening the economy of Ontario, or any other province, requires acceptance of a level of risk. One can debate what level is acceptable, but surely it’s not none at all.

Ford and his ministers kept saying that their framework is “a road map, not a calendar.”

If this is its road map, then this government is well and truly lost.

THE STEPS WE ARE TAKING ARE WORKING.